You renamed your SharePoint site last Tuesday. By Wednesday, every link stored in your news posts, page web parts and list columns still points at the old address. The redirect SharePoint leaves behind catches some clicks, but Microsoft is clear that URLs embedded in web parts are not updated and may break. Updating them one by one through the SharePoint editor is not a plan: it is two days of tedious work spread across dozens of pages.
This guide explains why links break after a rename or migration, where the old addresses hide, and how to fix broken links in SharePoint Online by bulk replacing a URL across a site's pages, list and library columns, and Office files in one run, checking the matches before committing any changes.
Why URLs break in SharePoint Online
A SharePoint link breaks when the domain or path it holds no longer matches where the content lives. The old URL is stored text in a page, a column or a file, not an error you can fix by clearing a cache, so it has to be replaced with the new URL everywhere it appears. Each of these events invalidates a different part of every absolute URL in your content:
A site address change
Changing a site's address (from /sites/old-marketing to /sites/marketing) changes the canonical URL of everything in it. SharePoint leaves a redirect at the old address, so many links keep working for now, but URLs embedded in web parts are not updated, and the redirect only lasts until someone deletes it to reuse the old address. Relative links within the site usually survive, because they point at a path below the site root rather than the full address. A site address change cannot switch the managed path either, so moving a site from /teams/ to /sites/ always means a new site and a full set of new URLs.
A SharePoint domain rename
Renaming the SharePoint domain (for example from contoso.sharepoint.com to newbrand.sharepoint.com), often after an organisation rebrand, leaves every absolute URL in every page, list item and embedded link pointing at the old domain. Microsoft creates a redirect at the previous address, but it expires one year after the rename, and Microsoft's own guidance says content containing the old domain is not updated. The only durable fix is replacing the old domain string with the new one.
A cross-tenant move or other migration
Moving sites between tenants for a merger, acquisition or divestiture always changes the domain part of every URL, from oldtenant.sharepoint.com to newtenant.sharepoint.com. The source and destination are separate Microsoft 365 environments, so a link to the old address only works while the source content is still there. The same applies to any migration into SharePoint Online that changes the host name, which is why the destination side needs a URL pass before the source is switched off. See fixing broken links after a SharePoint migration below for the order of work.
If nothing was renamed or moved and links have simply rotted over time, you do not know which old address to search for, and that is a detection job rather than a replacement one: see broken link checker options for SharePoint Online for auditing link health first.
Where old URLs hide, and what fixes each
Obvious broken links surface quickly, because a page author notices a missing hero image the moment they view the page. The harder ones sit deep in structured content and go unnoticed until someone follows the link. Map the locations before you start, so you know which ones a bulk run reaches and which need a manual pass:
| Location | Replace Master | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Site pages and news posts (Text, Quick Links, Button, Hero and Image web parts) | Yes | Include Site Pages in the run; spot-check pages afterwards |
| Hyperlink or Picture columns | Yes | Include the list; a library of 5,000 items linking to the old domain is one run instead of 5,000 edits |
| Single line and multiple lines of text columns holding URLs | Yes | Include the list with column values switched on |
| Managed metadata and calculated columns | No | Review by hand if they contain URL patterns |
| Links inside .docx, .xlsx and .vsdx files | Yes | Tick Replace text in Files and keep the extension on the list |
| Links inside .pptx files and PDFs | No | Use Find and Replace in PowerPoint; regenerate PDFs from fixed source documents |
| Quick Launch, top navigation and hub navigation | No | Edit in the navigation editor (steps below) |
What Replace Master can update
Replace Master works on the lists and libraries you pick on one site, and you choose which of three content surfaces it searches:
| Option | What gets updated | Typical scenario |
|---|---|---|
| Column values | Single line of text, multiple lines of text and hyperlink column values, including the text that holds site page content | News articles and team site pages linking to a renamed site; a "Link" or "Related resource" column in a tracker |
| Settings / custom formatters | Text in list settings and JSON column and view formatting | A formatter that builds a link from a hard-coded site address |
| Files | The contents of files with the extensions you list: .docx, .xlsx and .vsdx are opened properly; .aspx, .html, .xml, .css and .txt are treated as text | Word and Excel documents, classic .aspx pages and HTML files with links to the old address |
One important boundary: Replace Master cannot edit PDFs, PowerPoint decks or the older binary .doc and .xls formats. Links inside those need the original application. Any extension you add yourself is treated as plain text, which can corrupt a binary file, so keep the list to the formats above.
How to bulk replace URLs using Replace Master
Step 1: Connect with an account that can edit the site
Open ShareMaster, choose Find & Replace in the left menu and connect to the site you want to update. The account needs to be able to edit the lists and libraries you will pick. If you include the Site Pages library, or a wiki or publishing page library, with file replacement switched on, ShareMaster turns custom scripts on for that site while it writes the pages back and off again once the library is finished, which needs SharePoint Administrator rights.
Step 2: Pick the lists and libraries
Tick the lists and libraries on the site to scan. Include Site Pages if your pages carry the old link. Each run covers one site, so a domain rename or tenant migration means a run on every site that holds content. A single site address change may only need the sites that linked to it: usually its closest neighbours plus any hub site that pointed at it. A smaller scope also keeps each change report easier to review.
Step 3: Choose what to search and enter the values
Choose any of Replace text in Settings / Custom formatters, Replace text in column values and Replace text in Files, then add an Old Value and New Value pair for each address. Be precise: include the protocol and any trailing path. Replace https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/projectalpha rather than just projectalpha, to avoid accidental matches in unrelated text that happens to include the same word. Each pair has its own case-sensitive tick box.
Replace Master performs a substring match, so you do not need to list every unique link. Give it the common prefix once and every URL that contains it is caught in the same pass. For a domain rename or tenant migration, the pair is the old base domain (https://oldtenant.sharepoint.com) and the new one (https://newtenant.sharepoint.com); for a site address change, it is the old and new site URL.
https:// and one for http://. Mixed protocol references are common in content migrated from older SharePoint environments.
Step 4: Preview before committing
The Find & Replace wizard does not preview matches itself, so before executing, run the Replace Master Report from the Reports menu with the same lists and values. It performs the scan without writing anything and exports each matched item and the number of matches to a spreadsheet. Review it for unexpected matches: sometimes a text column holds a URL for reasons unrelated to the scenario you are fixing, such as a historical reference you want to keep, and a blind replacement would overwrite it. Skipping is per list, not per item, so untick any list you want to leave alone before the real run.
Step 5: Run the bulk replacement
After confirming the preview, click Execute. Replace Master works through the selected lists in sequence, writing the new value and, where versioning is on, creating a new SharePoint version of each changed item or file. When the run completes, a report lists each item it changed and how many replacements were made. Because each change creates a version, you can roll back any individual update through SharePoint's standard version history.
How the file pass behaves
With Replace text in Files on, Replace Master downloads every file whose extension is on the list, rewrites it, uploads it, checks it back in if it was checked out, and publishes it when the file carries a minor version. The default list is .aspx, .txt, .docx, .html, .xml, .css, .xlsx and .vsdx. Word, Excel and Visio files are unzipped and their internal XML is rewritten, so links in the document body are updated in place. The swap is a literal substring replacement with no HTML or anchor awareness: it rewrites an href only when the search string occurs inside it, and it rewrites the same string just as readily in visible body text.
What to check after the replacement
A bulk URL replacement touches a lot of content quickly. Three verification steps are worth running once the operation finishes:
- Spot-check the highest-traffic pages. Open three to five pages that were in the preview list and confirm the links now resolve correctly. This catches any edge case where the URL pattern matched differently than expected.
- Re-run the Replace Master Report for the old URL. A second report with the old URL as the value should return no matches. Items the run could not update, for example because of permissions or a file checked out to someone else, may not appear in the change report, so any remaining hits need attention individually: check whether those items were locked during the run or sit in a column type Replace Master does not search.
- Check navigation links. Site navigation, hub navigation and global navigation are stored separately from page content, so fix them by hand as described in the next section.
How to fix broken navigation links
Quick Launch, top navigation and hub navigation links live in the site's navigation settings, not in list items or page content, so Replace Master does not scan them and they do not show up in a search of page content either. They are often absolute URLs, particularly when they link across sites. For site navigation on a modern site:
- Select Edit at the bottom of the left-hand navigation on a team site, or next to the top navigation on a communication site.
- Open each link that uses the old URL, update its address, and select OK.
- Select Save.
For hub navigation, follow the same steps on the hub site itself. Hub navigation is shown on every associated site, so updating the hub once covers the sites connected to it. After a domain rename, Microsoft notes that hub menu items with absolute URLs keep working through the redirect but are not changed, so edit them too.
How to fix broken links after a SharePoint migration
A migration leaves the content in its new home but the links inside it pointing at the old one. Treat the URL pass as part of migration sign-off rather than something users report one dead link at a time over the following weeks:
- Record the old addresses before you move. Export the sharing links and navigation links on the affected sites, so you have a known starting point for the replacement pass.
- Keep the source in place. Old links only resolve while the source content exists, so do the URL pass on the destination before the source tenant or server is decommissioned.
- Run the Replace Master Report on each destination site for the old domain or site path, then replace the old prefix with the new one using the steps above. Add an
http://pair as well if the content came from an older SharePoint environment. - Fix navigation by hand on each site and on the hub, and deal with PowerPoint decks and PDFs in their own applications.
- Re-run the report until it finds nothing, and send site owners the new URL base so they can update links they keep outside SharePoint, such as in their own documents or bookmarks.
The SharePoint cross-tenant migration guide covers the full migration workflow this fits into. For a renamed organisation, the corporate rebrand use case walks through updating URLs and navigation links across a renamed tenant, and the URL replacement tools comparison covers how manual editing, PnP PowerShell and Replace Master differ in scope and effort for the same task.
/sites/Marketing/Documents/policy.pdf rather than https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/Marketing/Documents/policy.pdf). Relative links survive a site rename within the same tenant. Absolute links are unavoidable across sites, but keeping them out of single-site content shrinks the next replacement pass.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I fix broken links after a SharePoint migration?
Work on the destination side while the source content is still in place. Run the Replace Master Report on each migrated site for the old address, replace the old URL prefix with the new one in bulk, then update Quick Launch, top and hub navigation by hand. Links inside PowerPoint decks and PDFs need the original application. Re-run the report until it finds no matches, and only then decommission the source. The migration checklist above sets out the order.
Can Replace Master update links inside Word documents or PDFs stored in SharePoint?
Partly. With Replace text in Files switched on, Replace Master opens and rewrites .docx, .xlsx and .vsdx files, plus text-based files such as .aspx, .html, .xml, .css and .txt, and uploads the changed file back to the library. It cannot edit PDFs, PowerPoint decks or the older binary .doc and .xls formats; links inside those need the application that created them.
Does a bulk URL replacement create new version history in SharePoint?
Yes, where versioning is on. Each item or file that Replace Master updates receives a new version entry in SharePoint's version history, just as any other edit would. The change is reversible: if a replacement introduced an error, you can restore the previous version containing the old URL through SharePoint's standard version restore. The volume of replacements also adds to version history storage - a real factor for tenants already close to their quota.
How do I find which SharePoint pages contain a specific old URL before replacing?
Run the Replace Master Report from ShareMaster's Reports menu. It scans the lists and libraries you pick for the old value and exports each match and its count to a spreadsheet without changing anything. SharePoint search will also find pages that contain the old URL string, but it does not flag broken links as a category and each result still needs a manual edit, which only works for a handful of pages. If you do not know the old address at all, start with the SharePoint broken link checker guide.
What if the renamed SharePoint domain still redirects old URLs?
Microsoft creates a redirect at the previous address when you rename your SharePoint domain, and it expires one year after the rename. Microsoft also states that content containing the old domain keeps working but is not updated. Updating all embedded links to the new address before the year is up removes the dependency on a redirect that will disappear.
How long does a Replace Master URL replacement take for a large tenant?
It scales with what you tick: more lists and items mean a longer run, and switching on the file pass adds a download and re-upload for every file with a listed extension. Because a run is limited to one site, big tenants are handled one site after another, and the per-site reports stay small enough to read.